Here Cathy Brennan lies about a lesbian feminist for some reason.

November 1, 2013

A few weeks ago I was tweeting my consternation that a man named Tara Hewitt (formerly “Tara Kitten”) was nominated to the UK’s Pink List in recognition of his relevance to the LGBT activist community.

Tara Hewitt is a conservative male politician who campaigns to limit the legal rights of women to access abortion services. He also campaigns against the rights of women to meet publicly for feminist activism outside the presence of men.

In this context, I mentioned in one of my tweets that I was surprised this gentleman had declined Cathy Brennan’s offer to pay for him to personally attend the RadFem2013 conference. He tweeted back thanking me for acknowledging that. And that was that. Life went on.

Brennan tweeting at me from her OWL account

Earlier today blogger Terri Strange contacted me on twitter asking me about that tweet. I signed in and discovered that Cathy Brennan’s OWL (Organizing for Women’s Liberation) account had also tweeted at me. Brennan’s account directed me via link to a post sent out to 96,000 facebook users from the Organizing for Women’s Liberation page titled “Here Gallus Mag lies about a lesbian feminist for some reason”.

Brennan’s post libeling me to 96,000 facebook subscribers

I am not a liar. For whatever reason Brennan DID offer to financially sponsor male anti-abortion activist Tara Hewitt to attend Radfem2013. He declined. Just exactly as I mentioned in my tweet.

I’ll pay 4 u

I would like to ask Cathy Brennan to desist in libeling me and attempting to smear my reputation as a blogger. I also request a public apology posted to the same 96,000 facebook users she sent this false accusation to. I know there is no point in asking because Brennan uses her wealth and legal skills gained as a representative of Goldman Saks and the payday loan industry to abuse, threaten, and libel working-class lesbians and feminists that she does not like.

Terri Strange asked me to publish a response to Brennan’s libelous claim. I am doing so out of respect for her.

70 Responses to “Here Cathy Brennan lies about a lesbian feminist for some reason.”

I have no idea how anybody engaged in feuds before we had screenshots. That said, it looked like a taunt more than a serious proposition.

That said, I’m out of this post, other than to say thanks for running this blog, Gallus, it is not easy and I think you do a pretty damned good job of moderating it, moderation being the Job From Hell.

Also, Facebook is a horrible misogynist host that all women should leave. They make you wait two weeks before they delete your account, mine will dissolve in two days. Fuck them, seriously, with their insane moderation where they block you for being associated with a page – in this case, OWL – because someone else posted a perfectly reasonable article that cast a poor light on male behavior. Trolled by DOODS and the fucking mods buy it. Fuck them.

Jonathan Aeryn Reed Fulton is running a new harassment account on twitter: “HugBrennan”. If I was a rich attorney I would devote my resources to getting a subpoena of Twitters ISP logs for that account. Not trying to libel other lesbian feminists. But WTF do I know.

I don’t know either, Gallus. I read stuff and write stuff and this week I have been planting irises and wood hyacinths, and I have some half-price leftover peonies on order, because my mom wrote me a few years back about how much she loves her peonies. So I’m watering in the peony spots and digging and planting the irises, and this is all really exceptional, you know? Even though people have been digging around and moving plants around for maybe ten thousand years, it’s never ordinary, if you’re looking and have gotten yourself in the mood. It’s sacred every time I plant a hyacinth, an iris, an anybody. It’s sacred because I love when I plant, when I foster underage kittens from our wonderful animal shelter, when I do anything that leaves me thinking “Good Dog Miep, you got it right.”

And that, my friend, is perhaps my Halloween comment for this year. Snuggles.

How do you know about the “offer”? Is it possible that Tara Hewitt is just trying to stir things up within the radical feminist community and is spreading rumors or even “evidence” (and knowing how many of these trans are in the computer industry, they are quite capable of falsifying electronic “evidence” in an attempt to damage the community?

Thank you for having the courage and honesty to post this, Gallus Mag. After trying to con Radical Feminists into believing she was one of us, Cathy Brennan has been playing a double game with the men, as well as slandering and trying to destroy any woman who sees the truth and/or says no to her.

I do use facebutt and have several Radical Feminist (including Radical Lesbian Feminist groups), and will share this for all to see, as well as post in every group I can post in. For all of it’s faults, it does help us have an international Radical Feminist community and is a great way for those more isolated to find us. And to spread important information about betrayal like you’ve given us.

You warned everyone already that she’s a sociopath. I agree, based on observing the harm she does our movement since she theoretically joined a bit over a couple of years ago. But many are under her spell or just too afraid of her. Spreading the word now…

The only courage this post takes is making myself a target for more of Brennan’s libel, threats, and abuse.

I hope it’s clear that I actually don’t give a shit why CB offered to pay Tara to attend RF2013. I can think of any number of “reasons” (she forgot who she was talking to, she was confused, bad medication reaction) which don’t involve some grand conspiracy. Only Cathy can say. I don’t really care. At the time several of us just went “wtf?” I don’t think it is particularly “newsworthy” or worth posting on (or I would have at the time!)

My point in my tweet was that Tara surprisingly declined Brennan’s offer.

The only reason I am posting this is that it was brought to my attention that Cathy Brennan had posted today, to the 96,000 subscribers she pays Facebook to promote her OWL site to, a false and libelous accusation smearing my reputation and accusing me of lying. When in fact I was telling the truth. Terri Strange asked me to post on it to clear things up. The end.

Apparently Brennan is sticking to her denial story and her libel of me. Jesus Christ this woman has no moral or ethical compass whatsoever. I’ve seen her do some atrocious things but this is really really fucking sad. I feel sorry for her. We all fucking saw it at the time you dummy. Jesus: this is Cathy Brennan’s legacy after all of it. A sad sick person.

I don’t even understand Brennan’s objection to my tweet or her need to lie about it and slander and libel me. I don’t understand why she needs to deny it. We all assumed at the time that she forgot who she was talking to. None of us suspected some conspiracy of Brennan to involve men. WE LAUGHED. Like so much fuckery that Brennan does, this MAKES NO SENSE.

Her “followers” are literally claiming on twitter than “an imposter” must have used her account to post the tweets screencapped above. WHAT?! What is wrong with these people?!

Here’s the deal: Gallus is going to tweet whenever the fuck she wants WHATEVER THE FUCK SHE WANTS about doods and their response to “radfemleaders” who offer to pay them to attend radfem conferences. GOT THAT?

IN ADDITION: I will also tweet about WHATEVER THE FUCK ELSE I WANT TO INCLUDING ANYTHING I WANT ABOUT BRENNAN. You can slander, libel, harass, defame, lie, threaten, sue OR WHATEVER THE FUCK ELSE YOU WANT. You kooky kooky bwennan kulties.

Well well. Someone I trust says that Brennan just posted some weird nonpology on her personal facebook page where she admits she libeled me, then mocks me for being too poor to sue her. I don’t have screencaps. Us commoners- yanno, the shit beneath Brennan’s feet- will have to wait for a public post, RETRACTION, and APOLOGY.

I haven’t seen any of this, but from your screen cap of the original convo, I understood it to be a “put up or shut up” taunt to the man in a dress. She knows the person would not accept it. I wouldn’t put any other meaning on it, which gives the man in a dress some kind of ethical cred which HE quickly jumped at. Naw. Dude. You’re an asshole, plain and simple. You know from nothing with ‘inclusivity’. You only know ectoplasm smothering.

Could be. Brennan simply claimed repeatedly to 96,000 people that I was a liar for referencing it. She denies that she posted these tweets. I assumed she got confused about who she was talking to. I guess we’ll never know and it will all be chalked up to “Gallus Mag Lies About Lesbian Feminists” or some bullshit. Yanno what? I’m not going to be censored. Let Brennan “destroyyyyyy” me. Fuck her and fuck every asshole that tries to shut me up. I’ll tweet any thought that pops into my head. Whenever I want. Forever.

Wrapping up, I’m told Cathy Brennan is posting on her facebook page that poor women discriminate against her as a wealthy person (!), and that over two years and six radfem conferences she – a millionaire- has contributed a grand total of six attendance fees. That’s one per conference! (100% bet they are all young bisexual “political lesbians” she favors). LOL.

I’m sorry but I direct my anger at this piece of shit MALE who plays with women’s lives, sits there in his privilege as a MALE, as a man who threatens and manipulates to get more privilege as an EQUALITY officer, probably SITTING IN HIS EQUALITY OFFICE rocking back and forth on his cock cumming and laughing at the distress and discord he has caused women, the derailment of our time and energy

It wasn’t a man who caused MY distress and discord by publishing libelous claims about me repeatedly. It was Cathy Brennan, who has a Goldman-Saks “pass” for libeling any lesbian or feminist she wants (and she DOES want!) without consequences for her unethical dishonest politicking.

Your anger is clearly justified, Gallus. One must SCREENSHOT EVERYTHING because of how frequently Brennan deletes and denies. It’s pretty crazy-making. Intentionally so, I think. But the screenshots speak for themselves. You are not lying.

I also want to comment that Brennan did not destroy me or my site. I closed ‘Undercover Punk’ after I started writing as Hungerford. That was not because of Brennan but because of *haters* trolling the site for material to use against me. My views have evolved– and in some cases MATURED– quite a bit over the years. I don’t want the hassle of having to defend things I may not believe any more.

Regarding myself, no doubt: my world shook and my blood ran cold when I realized that Brennan didn’t feel it necessary to notify me about the exposure of my family’s information on tumblr. But I recovered and although some things will never be the same, I think I do much better work now than I ever did with her.

Keep on telling the truth, GM. That’s what we DO and what we will keep doing. No matter what. Go team!

And btw, I’d never support someone who hurt other women just because she is a woman herself. Having a vagina is not a pass.

Please sign me up for a signed copy of your memoir! :* I know it will be super smart and super fucking FUNNAY!!!

“I’d never support someone who hurt other women just because she is a woman herself. Having a vagina is not a pass.”
No worries.
When my sister died of an overdose Cathy complained on her facebook page about my loss and described my grief as “drama”. The fucking “DRAMA” of my sister’s tragic death.

I can be overly hopeful and codependent but Brennan will get no pass by me. EVER.

Thank you to the women who contacted me, commented, sent screenshots, etc. I LOVE YOU! I realize now that of course I’ve been trolled by the greatest troll ever- who singlehandledly destroyed some of the best radical feminist websites in existence. This thread is done. This house is clean. Read my memoirs for the rest😉

Brennan is a scary liar and sociopath, don’t get me wrong, with all the power of male Goldman Saks etc. behind her. She destroys women. Women should protect themselves. Very few radfems have been unscathed by her lies, attacks, harassment and disinformation. Women in the radfem community know this all too well. She has an honesty problem. An ethics problem. If anyone has influence over her they should do an intervention. But they won’t, because she is rich and abusive. Instead, she surrounds herself with other rich women, and women she financially supports. She uses her wealth to abuse women. That is sad.

Even so, if men think we will throw her under the male bus they are wrong. So wrong. As men often are. lol.

In response to the overly porny comment about men being who we should focus on — I have no better expectations of men. It’s the women who matter to me, so when a woman has hurt women so many times, lie, and betrays and manipulates and double-deals feminists on behalf of men, then I certainly hold her accountable. It’s not a derail at all because Cathy Brennan drives women out of our movement. Women need to know the truth to protect ourselves and stop trying to protect a sociopathic abuser who ultimately supports men against women. I’m suspicious of anyone who tries to divert us from spreading the word and truth….

I just heard part of a recent video of Brennan, described as a “longtime Lesbian activiist” (not true unless that’s the L in LGBTQIWTF) where she refers to “transgender people,” “transsexuals,” a “transman” described as “he,” etc. Sounds like an avid trans cult member. And no way a “feminist” can play that game without betraying all women and girls.

But like with the women who protect the men from feminists telling the truth, Brennan has followers who use her same tactics on Radical Feminists who dare to talk about all the ways she has betrayed us — lying, name-calling, projection. Amazing how a woman can call women “men” and can have her male friend in a Lesbian Caucus (providing him personal information on over 500 Lesbians who joined, believing they were in safe space) — yet any woman who warns our community about these facts (which are visible or never denied) is said to be “trashing” and unsisterly, while the one who is betraying us is defended.

This is happening right now in fb “Radical Feminist” groups. Same denial of reality, fighting dirty to stop the truth from being spoken, not caring the harm to individual Radical Feminists or our community.

Men always count more than women. Women who support men against women always count more than women who fight for girls and women.

Well there’s a couple things going on here. First of all, the backlash against the Women’s Liberation movement is so profound at the moment that the most basic foundations of feminism: “sexual exploitation of women is bad”. “Prostitution harms women”. “Reproductive slavery is bad”. “Pornography harms women”. “Gender is the ritualization of women’s subordination”. Has become so embattled and taboo that merely uttering them makes one a “radical” feminist. As if “ingrown toenails are not good” now makes someone a radical disability activist.

The other thing is class. When Cathy Brennan offers her ever so helpful “don’t forget to do something feminist in real life, not just on the internet” who THE FUCK is she talking to? Other millionaire corporate drones in their air-conditioned offices I guess. “Don’t forget to network and write your checks!” Hahaha. What the everloving fuck. Millionaire politicking is miles away from the rest of us women with our feet on the ground. And guess what? Your “activism” is not helping women. If you are a millionaire attorney you should be suing people. AND NOT OTHER WOMEN! LOL! If you are not suing people than YOU should shut the fuck telling working class women how we should “remember” to do feminism. It is to laugh. And we all DO laugh because these women are so far removed from the reality of regular women’s lives it is pathetic.

Working class women change the world, not white collar millionaire politickers. Every fucking day we battle for equal pay, equal training, equal work. We don’t’ have “a choice” and we don’t need to be “reminded”. WE DO THE WORK. Not some corporate lackey drone who imagines themselves so superior that we are all simply waiting for her pithy helpful guidance “reminding us” like reminding us we are late for our rent. We don’t need to be helpfully “reminded” to do it because we are fighting for our lives. We have no choice. My god, the arrogance. The disrespect. The cluelessness. The patronage.

Seriously rich women should work on rich woman things and not imagine that regular women are wandering around haplessly waiting for your superior guidance. We’re already doing it. We’re doing it now. On the daily. What are YOU doing? Nothing. Talking. We laugh. You make us laugh. Laughing is good. So thanks for that.

I have no “dispute” with Cathy sponsoring Tara Hewitt to RadFEm2013. I found it MILDLY amusing. As did most of us. The only individuals who found it disturbing were, you guessed it, her “supporters” who considered it a great crime. Scary.

Take a moment to consider what this sort of activity does to women who don’t handily have a forum to respond to it. Which is most women. Please think about that. Because Cathy does this shit ALL THE TIME. She posted that the organizers of RadFem2013 had “no business” organizing radfem conferences because one libfem attendee posted criticisms afterword. She posted that a respected radfem “was a libfem” because the woman unsubscribed to her girlfriend’s twitter account after the GF posted that she wanted to masturbate while watching Hugo Schwyzer commit suicide. She posted that all women, are “damaged and two-faced” after FCM asked her to allow other women to take a leadership role at RFHub. She lied repeatedly about removing her male transgender friend Rhayne Alexander from the women-only Lesbian Caucus that she exploited me to form. She first blamed me for asking her (over three months) when she was busy, eventually admitting that she lied because he was her friend.
She records all phone calls, and will cherry-pick excerpts out of context from personal correspondance to try and re-frame and smear things that were said in jest. She will outright lie, and when we all first witnessed this, we were horrified, and speechless. This is when all of us stopped commenting on and supporting her blogs. It is absolutely terrifying to see someone burst into flagrant, outrageous, streams of untruths. Absolutely terrifying.
She will post personal email addresses and identifying information and has personally outed at least 30 tumblr radfem bloggers (most disappeared). She outed a well-known blogger by her real name and FB account after Cathy said she failed to show up at RF2013 after Cathy sent her money to do so.
When my computer was disabled she posted that I was lying about it even though I never used my site to solicit help or donations. She bought GallusMag.Com and ManSplainTransSplain.com and redirected them to her own sites when wordpress tried to shut us down, instead of helping us.
She published a private email sent to radfem bloggers, without permission, when my site was locked, thereby forcing me to go public with it before I was ready and deal with all that when I was on my way to work. She attached a bunch of weird shit against Julie Bindel to that post without asking.
There’s more..
hahaha I’m just getting started, but then all Cathy’s targets know that… lololol

I did make that mistake. “Brennan has thrown too many of us into depths of depression and fear that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.” Yes. This is the price for that mistake. Or just for randomly crossing her path.

Cathy is not a deep thinker. LOL. You can tell that from reading her writings which try to re-state (and re-author) ideas other women have said. She got into activism because “women like that fiery activist. They want to get with that”. LOL. Seriously.

She will stop doing these things. She is under a lot of pressure. She needs care and with enough support will stop doing these things. She can get better. She is good at heart. I can absorb it. I am fine. No I don’t want to press charges. Ugh.

More than a year ago I was telling a similarly injured lesfem that I thought CB could change. She told me that I was clinging to an abusive relationship. As a lesbian-loving-lesbian I *had* to believe that Brennan could change. My experiences since then, with Brennan and with another dyke, have forced me to abandon that belief. Lesbians can attack each other with intent do destroy.

It has happened to me too many times in my life to any longer deny. It has taken me more than forty years to allow myself to accept that, as I must, to allow myself a clear vision of what my life has been; in what context it has been lived.

I love all the lesbians on this planet that I’ll never know – who have not tried to destroy me or any other lesbians. I love all the lesbians I have known, and know, who never tried to destroy me or any other lesbians. I will leave this planet loving all of those lesbians, now and forever.

Yes, it’s co-dependency and forgetting that trying to love and forgive and hope for a woman who has betrayed women repeatedly will help her continue harming women. It’s essential to see it in the context of the harm she continues to do. And it’s happening now.

Please do not hope she will change. If she does seem too, don’t trust it, because she will backstab again. That is what sociopaths do.

Thank you so much, Gallus Mag, for listing some of what she’s done. Because you tried so long with her, you have the most information.

I really want to see her followers explain all that you listed. But they just go on the attack. From what I’ve seen, Brennan’s supporters are calling your post here a “stupid rumor” and insisting it didn’t happen. Or that she had invited many women and didn’t know Tara was a man. So I ask, what about the rest of it?

Roseanne’s radio interview with Brennan has been shared on fb as if she is our leader. Her acolytes who are saying her “analysis” (which is classic trans cult speak) completely ignore that she is betraying girls and women on the basic principles of who we are. She calls a woman a “transman” and legitimizes all the basic trans cult demands. Yet her followers are vicious in going after anyone who quotes her directly, and lecture that we need to be less exclusive, less radical, etc. to reach more women. As if the majority of women do not believe for a moment that drag queen/female impersonators/trans are women. Most women respond like the one I told about men saying they are Lesbian: “That’s just plain creepy.”

It’s only a few rightwing/liberal feminists and bullied Lesbians who pretend to believe the trans cult line.

So who are Brennan and her followers hoping to reach by obeying the men and selling out women?

Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. Only when we said no to these men over forty years ago (as I did in print in 1973) will they back off. Hurting women in an effort to not hurt the feelings of these most female-hating men is what got us to where we are now, with no women only space left. Not even a bathroom!

The problem with Brennan really is the same problem as with the men in the trans cult: The women who defend them and support them against the rest of women and girls. The only difference is that Brennan’s followers insist they are Radical Feminists.

I hadn’t know that Brennan was so cruel to you when your sister died. You hardly commented on it! I’m guessing she was still expecting all attention from you on her and Narcissist Sociopaths are outraged when someone you love dies. I mean, how dare they? When my mom died suddenly, dear friends in our household gave me a card, and my Narcissist Sociopath ex just flipped because my mom was as important to her as to me (supposedly), her grief equaled mine, and how dare her grief be so ignored, etc. etc. So then she basically left me to go on my own to deal with all that needed to be done, though she supposedly loved her so…

They are just fucking evil, selfish, etc.

Anyway, I’m so sorry that she added to your grief and pain when you needed just to be loved then. xoxox

CB is the Hugo Schwyzer of radical feminism: she’s only in it for the narcissistic supply. Whether that comes from her cult-like followers, from pitting women against each other, or from the hell god status ascribed her by trans activists & their allies, it’s all the same: food for her insatiable ego.

I actually thought I closed comments to this post. I think it’s really important that women can get support around this. But it makes me anxious and literally sick to my stomach every time I think about her and all the awful things she’s done and continues to do. For my own mental health I am closing comments to this thread, I know you will all understand.😦